September Harvest Produce and Foraging
Who does not like ‘free food’ ?We love to use local produce and of course anything that we can grow or access for free is a bonus. This time of year the blackberries and hedge fruits are ripening so you can often see us reaching across the brambles and hedgerows picking the ripened fruit to use in our Longmead preserves and jams. We always ensure we don’t pick all the berries after all the wildlife feast here too.
There are strict rules and advisory measures when considering foraging. Exmoor is covered in wild vegetation and plants, but you need to know what and how you can forage. For a different experience way of exploring Exmoor why not book into a guided session via Moor Wild experience. Exmoor Foraging
They can share their expert knowledge about this special skill as well as letting you cook up tasty food and recipes using these local and seasonal ingredients.
Foilage , Flowers, Fungi , Fruit or Wild Plants can be foraged for free. Here in Exmoor there are plenty of wild herbs/ plants/ berries/ seeds and fruit that can be eaten by both animals and people if you know how to find, safely pick , prepare and or cook. Earlier this year we have picked andused some wild garlic and nettles right nowof course blackberries and bilberries ( otherwise known as Whortleberries across Exmoor) are ripe and ready for picking and making into preserves either jams or chutneys.
Why not make your excess harvest or glut of produce into jams or chutneys.
Here is therecipethat I found onPinterest nancy-warner.com for my Apple and Green Tomato Chutney that I used for the basis of my own recipe by adding some additional ingredients such as ateaspoonof orange and lemon peel to bring out the sweetness.
Longmead House Green Tomato and Apple Chutney
- 6 cups of green tomatoes diced and deseeded
- 4 cups of bramley apples or equivalent tart cooking apples peeled and diced
- 1 cup of raisins
- 1 teaspoon of lemon juice
- 1 tea spoon of mixed peel ( optional)
- 6 cloves of garlic crushed or minced
- 2 ½. Medium red onions finely diced
- ½ cup packed dark brown sugar
- 1 tablespoon freshly grated ginger
- 2 Tablespoons of red wine vinegar
- 1 teaspoon dried mustard powder
- 1/2 teaspoon mixed spice
- Salt and Pepper seasoning
(you can add ½ tea spoon dried chilli flakes if you like your chutney to have a kick)
Method
Combine all the ingredients into a large pan, use a potato masher to ‘squash’ all the tomatoes and apples down a bit in the pan. Cover and allow to marinate for 3 hours or best left overnight.
Cook over a medium heat and bring to the boil , reduce the heat and simmer for 10 – 15 minutes occasionally stirring until the mixture thickens and the liquid reduces.
Ladle the hot chutney into sterilised jars and cover with a waxed seal and airtight lid.The longer you leave the chutney the more mature the flavour. Make it this year and eat it next year. We are using jars of chutney that I made last year and they taste delicious. A tight sealed jar should stay good to eat for a couple of years. Once opened then consume within 4 -6 weeks.